didnt know where to put this, just had a quick question. lookin at a mossberg 500 with 20" barrel, with rifleing. i can only shoot slugs out of this? or is there anything else that would work, i dont need to hit anything 100 feet away with this gun, home defense and the occasional practice session, just to shoot it, so my question is would it be bad to shoot maybe buckshot or target type rounds out of it also. is there anything dangerous about that? thanks

A "rifled" barrel is designed for stabilizing single projectiles by imparting a spin to them. I've heard horror stories about unsupported shot packages having left lead behind in the rifling, but never witnessed it. I've heard also of the rifling spin causing wildly uneven patterning of shot payloads this too, never witnessed. Were I given a choice, I'd stick with a smooth bore. But if it was the only H/D defense gun available and being used @ across the room distances with Buck shot, I doubt the intruder wouldn't be able to tell the difference? 10 yards +, a different kettle of fish.

Frankly, from your described use of the shotgun I'd get it with a smooth bore Improved Cylinder bore instead of a rifled barrel. Wtih a smooth bore you would have a lot more variety of ammo you can shoot instead of just slugs.

I have a Mossberg 590 with 20 inch Improved Cylinder smooth bore and ghost ring sights. I can put 5 out of 5 slugs on a paper plate at 100 yards with sabot slugs, and 5 out of 5 on the same target using conventional Foster slugs at 75 yards. Certainly not rifle accuracy, but plenty accurate enough to put a whitetail down. With the smooth bore barrel, it'll easily handle any 12 guage round that will fit in the chamber including regular game loads, bird shot, buck shot, plus I've fired special purpose bean bag rounds and rubber rounds.

If you want a rifle accurate short range firearm, go with the rifled barrel. They are certainly dandy for shooting slugs, but if you want the full flexibility of a shotgun I'd recommend a smooth bore.

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If you're getting a real deal on the gun, go ahead and buy it. Mossberg barrels are interchangeable. You can just buy another barrel. The one that you're getting on it is meant for firing slugs and hunting deer in those states/areas that mandate use of a shotgun and prohibit centerfire rifles (usually owing to concerns about population density).

I have a rusty old Mossberg 500 28" vent rib barrel that I got for 20 bucks or so plus postage. Barrels can certainly be had cheap.

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Yes shoot only slugs out of the rifled barrel and buy a second smooth bore barrel for shot and buckshot loads.